Head Pose Assessment Methods and Systems

Abstract

Improvements are provided to effectively assess a user's face and head pose such that a computer or like device can track the user's attention towards a display device(s). Then the region of the display or graphical user interface that the user is turned towards can be automatically selected without requiring the user to provide further inputs. A frontal face detector is applied to detect the user's frontal face and then key facial points such as left / right eye center, left / right mouth corner, nose tip, etc., are detected by component detectors. The system then tracks the user's head by an image tracker and determines yaw, tilt and roll angle and other pose information of the user's head through a coarse to fine process according to key facial points and / or confidence outputs by pose estimator.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This patent application is a divisional application of co-pending, commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 452,783 entitled “Head Pose Assessment Methods and Systems” filed on May 30, 2003, which application is incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]This invention relates to computers and software, and more particularly to methods and systems for assessing the position of a user's head and affecting applicable computer operations based on such assessments.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Computers and other like devices are invaluable tools in nearly every industry and setting. These devices and appliances come in a variety of different forms and may be designed as general purpose or special purpose tools. Common to most of these devices is the need to interface the user(s). A typical general purpose computer may include, for example, a display mechanism and at least one input mechanism. The display mechanism, e....

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Methods, apparatuses and systems are provided to effectively assess the users face and head pose such that the computer or like device can track the user's attention area based on an estimated head pose. Then the region of the display or graphical user interface that the user is looking towards can be automatically selected without requiring the user to provide any further inputs.

Problems solved by technology

Such keyboard techniques may become less efficient when there are a greater number of selectable regions within the GUI and the user is required to repeat the input sequence several times until the desired selectable region is actively in focus.

While techniques that use a mouse or other like user pointing device may prove easier for users selecting between several selectable regions, they can become burdensome when the display device(s) present a large GUI interface.

These various techniques and others like them, therefore, in certain circumstances tend to hinder or otherwise reduce the effectiveness of a multi-tasking user interface environment.

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